Customer Reviews

I Am Not Afraid of You & I Will Beat Your Ass

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

With a title like "I Am Not Afraid Of You And I Will Beat Your Ass," it seems like an understatement to say that veteran indie-rock band Yo La Tengo are feeling confident.

And Yo La Tengo stick to what works after twenty years of indie-rocking, with a Velvet Underground vibe, solid pop tunes, noisy rockers and some wildly engaging jazzy experimentals. They know what they do well, and they do it as well as ever in their tenth album.

They take a bit of a risk in the opening number, "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind," a sprawling eleven-minute track that noodles through jazzy drums and fuzzy guitars. It sounds like the Velvet Underground having a lazy jam session, until the point where the cycling guitars erupt into a giant riff snarl.

The experimentation diddles around through the rest of the album, but never so strongly as it does in "Pass the Hatchet." They dabble in various other kinds of pop music, sprinkled with country, blippy electropop, retro-sixties, freestyle jazz and sweeping, dreamier numbers, like the ones from their last original album.

The highlight is "Beanbag Chair," which is one of those instantly lovable pop songs -- jaunty piano, blasts of horn, mischievous lyrics, and daydreaming vocals. If you ever heard Yo La Tengo on the radio, this would be their big, big single.

Yo La Tengo have diddled around with all kinds of sounds for the past two decades, usually with lots of success. Just so long as they don't try freestyle harmonica or classical bagpipes, there's no reason to think that they won't continue to succeed at their experimentation.

But they give their music some fresh new twists this time around -- they include silky string arrangements by David Mansfield, lots more piano, and more horns than they were using in "Summer Sun," courtesy of drummer Georgia Hubley. It feels peppy, fun and energized, like these guys were enjoying themselves just making every song.

Frontman Ira Kaplan shows his range in these songs, crooning "You can never sleep enough/and your alarm is going off/you wake up and you can't pretend/the dream is just a dream again," in a smooth voice. He's joined by bassist James McNew's falsetto in "Mr. Tough," which is a bit of a shock for awhile, but which works out all right.

Yo La Tengo are not afraid of you, but you don't need to be afraid of their latest effort either -- "We Are Not Afraid of you and We Will Beat Your Ass" is an all-around solid little album. Nice work!

Before I talk about how good this album is, I want to get my major gripe out of the way. This album is too long. 15 tracks, 77 minutes long, and it demonstrates that it is very hard, if not impossible, for a record that length to maintain any cohesion.

On the other hand, if you want cohesion, I don't think Yo La Tengo is your sort of band. After all, they once released a 40-somethin' minute "single" of covers of Sun Ra's "Nuclear War." This album is similarly eclectic. The opening track rocks out with heavy guitars over a 1-bar bass riff for fully ten minutes and it is brilliant. Following up is the piano-and-sax indie track Beanbag Chair, then the gentle "I Feel Like Going Home," then the romping "Mr. Tough" and its ridiculous indie-disco lyrics. The first part of the album builds up to "Daphnia," which is a gorgeous instrumental drifter that you should listen to right before going to sleep at 1am or later to get the proper effect.

And the album could well have ended right there. There's nothing wrong with the six tracks that follow, they're quite nice, I'm sure I'll listen to them more fully later and appreciate them better. There are just too many of them for it to be as an effective album as it would have with a shorter running length.

The ultimate point, however, is that this is quality music. Go get it.

WOW. Maybe the best record of the year. Maybe the best record of the 21st century. Incredible. All over the place, loose yet focused, sort of like THE WHITE ALBUM or WOWEE ZOWEE or EXILE ON MAIN ST. Easy to initially sort of write off (see the first basically unenthusiatic three-and-a-half star review). But it's really a grower, the more you listen the bigger it sounds. I can't decide if it tops I CAN HEAR THE HEART BEATING yet, but this one has an incredible pulse for sure. Messy, manic, melodic etc.

An important record, a great record, a ridiculously funny record (just like THE WHITE ABLUM and WOWEE ZOWEE).

Yo La Tengo = Best Band in the U.S.?

Hoboken NJ trio Yo La Tengo have delivered a gift to those who have considered the band to be one of the great under appreciated bands of recent times. I AM NOT AFRAID... is both a glance back at all the things that have made this band great, as well as a step forward.

The first track (PASS THE HATCHET, I THINK I'M GOOKIND) loudly announces that the band is revisiting past triumphs circa ELECTRA PURA or PAINFUL with blasts of feedback squalls over a lopsided beat that rumbles on for a blissful 10+ minutes. They then downshift into a 60's pop pastiche of BEANBAG CHAIR. By this point, fans will have a satisfied grin on their faces. The rest of the ways is an eclectic tour of the bands strengths, both old and new. Outside of the over 8 minute DAPHNIA, there is not a misstep on board. Actually, DAPHNIA is an interesting ambient exercise, but is about 5 minutes too long FOR MY EARS, and slows the momentum of the album. Newer ingredients, such as well integrated horns, bongos, haunting violin, more prominent piano and falsetto vocals push the Yo La palette forward, keeping this from being a mere exercise in revisiting past glories.

Overall, this stands as one of the best albums this band has released, standing shoulder to shoulder with 1997's I CAN HEAR THE HEART BEATING AS ONE. For Yo La Tengo fans, it does not get much better than this!

This album is now one of my favorite albums. The musical style of Yo La Tengo is present in each song even though each song is very different from the last. In fact I am hard pressed to classify this band as just one musical type because of the many styles of music they utilize in the creation of this album. Overall a very well thought out and cleverly executed album. A definite must have for every music lover.

I'm being generous with the 'four stars' rating. This album didn't actually stick with me as much as I thought it would. I bought it for the wonderful album title (which was worth it, just to say I have it) and was expecting the rest to be as humorous. I don't really get all of it - not that all songs are to be "gotten" - but the most of the songs didn't really grab enough of my attention for me to really enjoy them.

I can totally chill to most of it and so it makes a pretty good background CD, but the opening track "Pass the Hatchet, I Think I'm Goodkind" is only good if you want to freak out for over ten minutes and the repititious nature of the song makes me sick.

I haven't heard any of the previous Yo La Tengo records, so I'm not a die hard fan and therefore probably didn't enjoy it as much as I should have. Maybe I'll pick it up a little later and like it better.

absolutely an incredible accomplishment--stark, lush, hypermelodic, droney as hell, whimsical, ponderous, powerful, delicate--the vast array of palettes here is almost too much to take in. this band, with this release, surpasses quasi rivals sonic youth as the bellweather of american distorto-pop. "black flowers," "song for mahila," "the story of yo la tango" stun one with their majesty and humanity. i know that sounds more than a little lofty. i gave up on them with the last release, "summer sun." thank god someone made me buy this! it's up there with the other indie pop dreamy masterpiece of this year--the black watch (who are kinda the left coast answer to yo la) record "tatterdemalion," which isn't out till november.

I like this record a lot, but I agree with others here who think the vocals are subdued. That's too bad--the vocal melodies are good, very catchy, but Ira and Georgia aren't loud enough. Can't really tell what they're singing. You can hear James just fine on "Mr. Tough." Ira already sounds like Lou Reed / Roger Waters at times, so he needs to really eat that microphone or dig down. You too, Georgia. We know you can sing. Get it on the tape next time!

I love this album. Yo La Tengo is a national treasure and I am glad they haven't adopted the attitude that you should hang it up after thirty, or forty, or how ever old they are.

Yes, the songs on this YLT cd are stylistically all over the map, yet it somehow works. With each song comes a surprising anticipation. I have only listened to it twice, but I know this cd is going to be a classic swan song of this totally under-recognized group.